More from the article ...

... America offered "opportunities that would not have been available to a kid like me in any other country," says Mr. Ramaswamy, who's now locked in a close contest for Ohio governor. Republicans, he argues, are the defenders of that dream for anyone who's willing to work hard and follow the rules. ...

That message was once a core tenet within the GOP. But it's landing at a moment when many Republicans are debating what it means to be an American and who should benefit from the nation's bounty.

Vice President JD Vance has argued for the defense of Judeo-Christian values and the rights of "heritage Americans." At the party's midterm convention in Dallas this month, he spoke pointedly about the "birthright" of every "American child" to inherit the nation's "blessings." Days later, a Texas GOP candidate sparked a social media firestorm when he posted a picture of a group of students of South Asian descent celebrating a University of Texas football victory and said it showed "how many Americans have been displaced by foreigners." ...

@#7

More from that link ...

... Pentagon officials warn that Pete Hegseth's plan for a pair of billionaire defense contractors to help steer the military's future will produce conflicts of interest that threaten the long-term integrity of the department.

The Defense secretary's effort, dubbed Project Meridian, asks SpaceX CEO Elon Musk and Anduril founder Palmer Luckey " along with former Republican House Speaker Newt Gingrich -- to "map the trajectory of future warfare." They are supposed to report back in four months.

The Pentagon revealed few details about the commission or the scope of its jurisdiction beyond the four-paragraph memo that authorizes it and an insistence the U.S. needs to "dominate" the next generation of warfare.

It's unclear whether the initiative would give the executives the vast sway Musk enjoyed last year as leader of President Donald Trump's Department of Government Efficiency.

But both Musk and Luckey head companies that have contracts with the Pentagon worth billions of dollars -- and nine current and former officials said any preferential access could allow them to funnel even more business their way. ...

More from the cited article ...

... Earlier this week, Lewis declined to identify the players who were part of the mumps outbreak, citing federal privacy laws.

The university had confirmed three cases of mumps and two probable cases on Sept. 18, and all five of the students were connected to a single team. The university said the players were no longer contagious.

The university's email Wednesday from Dr. T. Ghosh, medical director of San Diego State Student Health Services, said that "because mumps symptoms can develop 12 to 25 days after exposure, these new cases reflect spread within the team and potential exposure to additional close contacts. The university continues to take a number of daily actions." ...

... committing "significant resources" to uncover election fraud even as agents repeatedly find nothing, sources tell The Atlantic. ...

It must be all those Democrats in the FBI ...

/s

... committing "significant resources" to uncover election fraud even as agents repeatedly find nothing, sources tell The Atlantic. ...

It must be all those Democrats in the FBI ...

/s

Oops, already posted earlier today.

See front page ...

More from the article ...

... Just a few months earlier, in September, Trump began ordering U.S. military strikes against Venezuelan boats that Trump alleged were involved in drug trafficking.

People had apparently been turning to Grok asking about the boat strikes and political climate in Venezuela, as The Atlantic reported at the time. So Grok told Trump that Maduro was a "deeply unpopular dictator and that many Venezuelans would likely celebrate his downfall," Time reported.

When such celebrations indeed happened after the U.S. invaded on January 3, Trump apparently "came away thinking Grok was ingenious," that source told Time.

So perhaps it should come as no surprise that in June of this year, the Pentagon's head of AI said that the military used Grok Gov to deploy and strike targets during the Iran War. ...

Non-paywalled article on the topic...

More from the article ...

... Of the 14 cameras found, 11 had no obvious owners, raising concerns about who has access to sensitive data that bad actors could abuse. After the cameras were discovered, St. Lucie County Commissioner James Clasby told a local news outlet that there's "potential for non-law enforcement to have cameras out there, and I'm not OK with that."

But the St. Lucie County Sheriff's Office ended up claiming three of those cameras, then refused to explain why they never obtained the required permits. The office did not immediately respond to Ars' request to clarify whether it ever accessed data recorded by the cameras.

In Florida, police have repeatedly been caught misusing Flock cameras, sometimes tracking single cars hundreds of times for personal reasons. ...

More from the article ...

... That includes reinstating canceled contracts, rehiring staff and buying new equipment -- while paying 420 employees $3.2 million every two weeks to remain on leave, according to a new report by the State Department's inspector general. The State Department and USAGM, an independent federal agency, share the same inspector general office.

The watchdog doesn't tally the total of the shutdown whipsaw and resulting lawsuits, which are still working their way through the courts. But it notes that some decisions intended to save money were being reversed, "incurring additional costs to taxpayers."

The findings offer a view into how the DOGE-era push to slash the federal government to cut costs created new ones, and how haphazard cuts and ill-planned program terminations and location moves also hampered the agency's mission. ...

@#13 ... Hence the devolution. ...

Exactly.

Republicans want to defund public education in favor of providing themselves discounts to attend their private schools.

So, instead of Republicans wanting to improve the problems they may see in public schools, all Republicans seem to want to do is make public schools even worse by defunding them.

It just fits into the uber-wealthy wanting to continue to have a whole class of people who are unable to do anything by work for the uber-wealthy.

@#12 ... You really are a moron. ...

imo, even worse than that.

It is just a reply-craving troll.

Of course, then the question may become, why does that current trolling alias seem to crave replies to its posted phlegm?

That one, I cannot answer.

... Anyone paying attention to recent education-related headlines knows that education bureaucrats across the nation are burying evidence of a widespread and unpleasant truth ...

Please provide examples of those recent education-related headlines.

thx.

@#10 ... While the right and Republicans CONTROL public education. ...

So, you've also noticed that the GOP drum-beating reduction of money for public schools may have had an effect upon the outcome for students graduating from those schools.

For me, if I were assigned the task of improving public schools, the first thing i would do would be to equalize the money spent upon the schooling of each student.

From what I see here in Connecticut, the difference between the wealthy towns and the non-wealthy towns is amazing.

@#9 ... Read the article. ...

It's an OpEd, not a news article. Written by an apparent social media wannabe.

Even the link your current trolling alias provides flags it as "opinion."

Do try harder.

So, it seems that Pres Trump's ~what can you do for me today~ policies and deal-driven tactics are doing little to pull our strategy-driven allies into the fold?

More from the article ...

... And even that agreement was largely meaningless, according to Polish Finance and Economy Minister Andrzej Domaski.

"There is consensus that food should not be used as a weapon. Of course, there is no consensus on who is using food trade as a weapon," Domaski said, pointing the finger at "what Russia is doing on the Black Sea" to block grain from Ukraine.

The divisions underscore the challenges the Trump administration faces trying to secure buy-in for its global trade priorities -- particularly vis-a-vis China -- after spending the better part of two years hammering traditional allies with a steady tide of tariffs. Trump's recent stances, from a chummy summit with Chinese leader Xi Jinping to a push to expand U.S. steel supply beyond the country's current demand, only add to the doubts.

A European Union official, granted anonymity to speak candidly about the closed door discussions, agreed that Trump's blanket tariffs on steel, aluminum and other manufacturing sectors "negatively impact" efforts to coordinate on an issue like China's flood of exports, which much of the West otherwise agree on.

The 27-country bloc has been swamped by cheap Chinese imports in recent years that are threatening to hollow out its manufacturing sector. Speaking in Spain on Wednesday, French President Emmanuel Macron criticized China for unfairly subsidizing its domestic producers and urged the European Commission to deploy more safeguards to protect European industry. ...

... What the Oligarch who Paid for Jr's Wedding Really Wants ...

imo...

Influence.

Nothing more, nothing less.

Why else would a Russian oligarch associated with Pres Putin do such a thing?

Possibly, trying to build the future control should Don, Jr. run for and win the Oval office.

It looks like what Russia might have done with Pres Trump back in his NYC real estate mogul days.

RFK,Jr's approach to medicine?

@#4 ... Progressives: "our taxes should pay for healthcare."

MAHA: "trillionaires need more money!" ...

Agreed.

But, when Pres Trump meets with the AI executives and signs an agreement with them, you might have thought that The President of the United States would actually know the name of the Country he is President of.

But, then there's this ...

@#2 ... But, over the past seven years, the toll it took on Mount Pleasant residents, the billions of dollars it sucked from state and local coffers and the virtually-barren land that's been left in its wake are a painful lesson on what can happen when public officials jump on an opportunity without really studying a company's history and listening to citizens, before committing more than $1 billion of those citizens' money on a project that didn't make a lot of sense in the first place. ...

imo, it is a painful lesson learned from believing what Pres Trump says about his deals.

@#12 ... That's established fact. ...

Got a link?

@#11

thx for the follow-up.

@#8 ... "No, the DNC didn't rig' the Democratic primary for Hillary Clinton"

we'll be fortunate enough to get someone who can ...

I object to any hint of rigging elections.

Is that what you really meant? Or did I just misread it?

@#7 ... I'll be back in a few. ...

Looking forward ...

:)